Even if you cannot resolve suffering, you must at the very least recognize that it is suffering

We mentioned earlier that the poor son's wandering arises from his abandonment of the Three Jewels. After undergoing long cycles of birth and death, his Mahayana spiritual roots have regressed, but his mind of renunciation remains undiminished, so he possesses the karmic conditions to attain liberation upon meeting the Buddha and hearing the Dharma.

We have also stated that the fundamental prerequisite for being delivered by the Buddha is the mind of renunciation, which is also the spiritual root of the Three Vehicles. In other words, even if you cannot resolve suffering, you must at the very least recognize that it is suffering. This is "knowing suffering", a foundational skill, and the threshold the Buddha uses to guide beings to liberation. If you do not even know that life is suffering, you cannot be guided to liberation. After all, all the impetus for spiritual practice comes from the mind of renunciation that arises from recognizing suffering; everything else can be cultivated gradually.

Though this poor son has lost his Mahayana wisdom and bodhicitta, the part of him that perceives suffering through the mind of renunciation remains intact. After the Buddha meets him, he therefore begins the work of restoring his spiritual roots. As long as you know that life is suffering and hold the mind of renunciation in your heart, all spiritual practice can be put into motion. Thus, the Buddha uses his desire to turn away from suffering to guide him to study and practice the Four Noble Truths, the path of the Small Vehicle. After he practices the Four Noble Truths, to draw closer to the poor son, the Buddha takes off his luxurious robes and dons shabby, dirty clothes. How, then, does the Buddha engage with the poor son?

Then he said to the workers, "You all work diligently, do not grow lazy or neglect your tasks. This is by skillful means, that I may draw near to my son." He spoke to him again, saying, "Hear me, young man: you keep doing this work, do not go anywhere else. I will increase your wages. Whatever you may need—pots, bowls, rice, flour, salt, vinegar, or any other necessities—do not hold back or have doubts in asking. I also have aged, worn-out servants; whatever they require will be supplied to them. Put your mind at ease. I am as a father to you; worry no more. Why is this? I am advanced in years, while you are young and strong. When you work, you never deceive, grow lazy, act with anger, or speak resentfully. I have never seen you display any of these faults, as I have with other workers. From this day forward, I will treat you as my own son." Immediately, the elder gave him a new name, calling him his son.

This is a teaching the Buddha gives to the poor son. This teaching is equivalent to expounding the Small Vehicle's Thirty-seven Factors of Enlightenment. Master Ouyi divided them into seven categories, collectively called the seven categories of enlightenment factors.

First, let us examine the first category: "speaking to the workers" corresponds to practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

The Buddha guides the poor son, who was engaged in cleaning the latrines. What does the Buddha guide him to practice? The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This practice is the central practice of the Four Noble Truths path, and its objects of contemplation are four: body, feelings, mind, and phenomena. "Body and feelings" constitute one pair, while "mind and phenomena" constitute the other.

We generate attachment and afflictive emotions toward our physical body and our feelings, so the Buddha uses the contemplation of impurity and the contemplation of suffering to counter these afflictions. For example, why do we feel attachment? It either arises from the material world, i.e., the physical body: you may eat delicious food or enjoy certain forms of entertainment, and this attachment stems from the physical body; or it arises from inner feelings, a state of mind. Whether it comes from material or spiritual sources, when we crave these pleasant sensations, the Buddha teaches us to observe their impurity and suffering to face them.

In fact, when practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, there are "individual aspect contemplation" and "overall aspect contemplation", but in actual practice, they function in tandem. For example, to counteract craving and attachment, practitioners of the Pure Land tradition also need to practice this counteraction, because the first step in turning away from the sahā world is to transcend craving and attachment. There are two ways to counteract craving and attachment: one is the contemplation of impurity, the other is the contemplation of suffering. The contemplation of impurity means that even though the material and spiritual worlds can bring you pleasant feelings, you need to remember that this happiness is tainted and inherently impure.